Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been drawn into a scandal involving the unlawful wiretapping of his former chief of staff’s nanny, with claims of illegal financing leveled at his campaign.
Petro’s ex-aide Laura Sarabia and former Colombian ambassador to Venezuela Armando Benedetti are under scrutiny after Sarabia’s nanny allegedly fell victim to illegal surveillance following the disappearance of thousands of dollars from her employer’s house.
To gain access to her calls, a false police report was allegedly used to link the nanny to organized crime — none less than the notorious Gulf Clan drug cartel, Attorney General Francisco Barbosa told a newss conference last week.
Photo: AFP
The nanny, Marelbys Meza, has claimed she was subjected to illegal interrogation and a lie detector test in January at a building annexed to the presidential palace in Bogota.
Sarabia and Benedetti stepped down last week and leveled accusations of wrongdoing against one another after prosecutors said the pair would be called to testify in a probe into Meza’s allegations.
On Sunday, the newspaper La Revista Semana published an expletive-riddled recording of Benedetti threatening Sarabia with his knowledge of alleged illegal campaign funding to the tune of US$3.5 million.
Benedetti, a key aide to Petro’s successful election campaign last year, was reported saying that they would all go to jail if he is pushed into spilling the beans.
Colombia’s national electoral council on Monday said that it was opening an investigation into Benedetti’s claims, and summoned Benedetti and Sarabia to appear before it on July 13 for “alleged irregularities in the financing” of Petro’s campaign.
On Monday, Petro, the country’s first-ever leftist president, said on his Twitter account that no one in his Cabinet nor leaders of the security or intelligence forces “had ordered telephone interceptions or illegal raids.”
Petro also denied knowledge of illegal raids, blackmail, or accepting “campaign money from people linked to the narco” drug-trafficking networks.
“I don’t accept blackmail,” Petro said and expressed solidarity with Sarabia.
In a Twitter post, Benedetti said the recordings revealed by the newspaper had been “manipulated.”
He offered an apology, which Petro accepted, while saying Benedetti “must explain his words to the prosecution and the country.”
Benedetti said that Meza had worked for him until June last year, when she was fired on suspicion of stealing thousands of dollars and failed a polygraph test.
He then introduced her to Sarabia, who hired Meza in August.
In January, the nanny was allegedly made to take another polygraph test, this time on suspicion of stealing US$7,000 from Sarabia’s house.
“I felt kidnapped, stunned...” Meza said in a newspaper interview that fired up social media and unleashed the investigation that has turned a domestic quarrel into a political embarrassment.
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